Location 1446:

“Why am I here?” Wukong chuckles, throwing his head back in unrestrained glee. “A philosophical question! The answer is simple: to learn and to grow.” “No, I mean, why am I here right now?” The Buddha cocks his head at me and shrugs. “The answer is the same, and will remain the same days and months and years hence.”



Location 1842:

“Look! I make no plans for the future but to go back to my forest home again.”



Location 2029:

“Wukong,” I say, “I still do not know why I am here.” “And the answer still remains: to learn and grow.” The grin he flashes me is mischievous. He knows full well how annoying he’s being right now.



Location 2037:

“Your comfortable assumptions. Your habits of thought. They are not merely ruts in the road keeping you on the path you’re following, they are like blindfolds, preventing you from even seeing that there are other paths.” “I know that there are other paths.” The Monkey King smirked. “You feel comfortable saying that, don’t you?”



Location 2598:

“Why is a Buddha spending his time serving bubble tea?” He shrugs. “It is a simple pleasure that tends to make people happy. And when they see that they can be made happy by something so simple, then all their other grand desires seem silly by comparison—for indeed they are. A Buddhist wishes to point out that desires are what prevent people from achieving happiness, that materialism is the cause of discord. The simple pleasure of bubble tea gets them to a receptive place to hear that message. Or to reinforce that message, if they’ve already heard it.”



Location 2792:

“We did see something in the divination that hinted at unexpected aid. I think a pumped-up murder sloth qualifies as unexpected.”